Birmingham-Southern College theatre program takes you behind the scenes.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

The Bloody Tour

Ok, so we were under the impression that we agreed to go on an underground tour through Edinburgh to see the "Lost City." Much to our surprise, there was a big blood red tri-fold advertisement at the meeting spot informing us that we were going on a haunted underground tour. That's not what we signed up for, but we agreed. The tour guide made it very clear that some women have had strange encounters with ghosts, such as having their hair pulled and coming out with scratches on their arms. Without hesitation, we two ladies agreed that throwing punches would be our best defense.

The stairs leading up to the side of the hill smelt like urine. Great. The door opened into an old college flat for the university that is now housing us. Awesome. The story goes something like this: the resident of this particular flat became bored one day, and after knocking around on his walls, realized they were hollow. So, he did what anyone in their right mind would do and took a sledge hammer to it, revealing a secret city.

The secret city contained a series of vaults--stone caves in short. The vaults housed anyone needing anonymity such as thieves and rapists. These vaults are now apparently haunted by those that died within. We were really excited to be there, to say the least. There have different reportings of attacks by spirits, such as pushing, having the sensation of being followed, and showing up in pictures as gray like figures.

Our favorite story was of the watchman. He was always described in the same manner: long dark hair, with half of his face disfigured, and wearing a long black cloak. Who did this sound like to me? Bill Weasley, ladies and gentlemen! Of course I (Spurge)have been reading the last Harry Potter book, so it's probably just wishful thinking. Two tours have been known to follow this figure as if he were the tour guide (who is also clad in a black cloak) until he "disappeared" into the wall. (I wonder if anyone actually followed him into the wall?)

The last room we entered contained medieval torture devices. On the far wall was a device known as the man trap, which I (Spurge) confessed I had been looking for for a long time. The most noticeable device for me (Nikki) was the anal probe. Hmmmm, what does that do? Well, it's heated and inserted....

So anyways, the tour was pretty cool, but the day tour is too short. Our guide was cool, and even came to see the show. Cheers!